The embodiments described herein relate generally to electrical machines, and more particularly, to methods and systems for coupling the electrical machine to a plurality of work components.
Certain electrical machines are sometimes referred to as brushless motors. Brushless motors include both brushless AC motors and brushless DC motors and are used in a wide variety of systems operating in a wide variety of industries. Conventionally, brushless motors are coupled to a work component, such as a pump. Some known applications may require a plurality of pumps wherein different pumps may include different shapes and sizes. Each configuration of the pumps may require a respectively shaped and sized motor.
In some applications, a housed coupling, such as a lovejoy coupling, may be needed to couple the motor to the pump. A lovejoy coupling, however, can increase the distance between the motor and the pump which may lead to space constraints. Further, lovejoy couplings can include multiple bushings and couplers which may lead to increased component and maintenance costs. Moreover, because of the respective interconnections between the motor and pump, interchangeability of motors and/or pumps may become difficult which may lead to costly and/or inefficient field modification and/or replacement of the motor or pump. For example, a drop-in replacement motor for various pump applications may require shipping multiple motors to replace an existing motor. Accordingly, a motor distributor may be required to stock a variety of motors to facilitate matching various styles and sizes of pumps or customers may also be required to order specific motors for every existing pump configuration.
Moreover, in some motor applications, fretting may occur in the motor shaft and/or pump shaft. Fretting may refer to wear and sometimes corrosion damage at the asperities of contact surfaces. Often, damage can be induced under load and in the presence of repeated relative motion, as induced, for example, by rotating motor and pump shafts. Conventionally, to replace damaged shafts, the entire motor may be removed from the field and the complete rotor assembly is often replaced which may lead to costly repairs and downtime for the industry application.